Friday, April 10, 2009

Mark Borthwick

I'd never heard of this guy before -- but he is also a musician, cook, filmmaker, and all around pretty interesting person; he has photo gallery-installation-dinner parties at his home for like 100 people.

I don't know, honestly, how interested I am in his images -- but he makes some really great statements in this interview. I copied and pasted the parts I really like :: (click here for the full link) ... really, though, please, read the whole thing.... it's good.

So you feel like when you are doing photography that you can accomplish all those multidimensional feelings?

MB: It's just attaching yourself to that feeling. For me, it was an enormous awakening to realize that there was a certain period in my life, maybe five years ago, for the ten years prior to that, where I struggled between the idea of Here I am today, I'm writing, the next day I'm drawing, the next day I'm taking pictures, and the next day I'm with the kids. Because there was no time, I never gave myself time to actually edit the pictures, or analyze the pictures, and question what I was doing and I realized that I never wanted to attach myself to that question. That question was never involved in the way that I was working; I was never practicing the idea of trying to understand what I was doing, what I was putting out there. I just wanted to leave it for what it was.

On why he doesn't shoot fashion anymore:

MB: No, no, it's exhausting in the sense that you're continually put into a position of a student. You have these hypocritical fashion editors out there, a few of them that try to attain their rules and put that forth. I don't believe in any of it anymore and fashion itself has become extremely unfashionable in that sense. Especially today, I think it's amazing to hang out on stoops here, where we live and see there's another way. There's always another way. Magazines took such a step backwards over the last twenty years trying to close the door to the other way. And I'm always interested in the other way, and I attach myself to that, whether it's with the clothes, the music, the cooking or just the idea of bringing people together. There's so much joy to be had with the small little events that happen to you daily. Te last couple of days have been magical. I walk out of this place, vibrating at a pace that's just phenomenal. There could be two or three people walking down the street, could be a kid and its mother and they sit down on the floor and... that's very precious. That lasts forever.

Answering what you said before about reaching a larger audience again with this, that's what I'm interested in now. I'm not trying to make it bigger than what it is, but at the same time, I'm interested to see where it can go. I like putting myself in a position where I'm back at the beginning again, and just nurture that. It's so much less about me and so much more about communicating and listening to the audience and people around. Maybe that's what this is about: that I gave myself the opportunity to take a step out and just listen for a while.